Double Date
by Christine Morgan
Summary: Lex and Broadway and their dates go to a concert and discover Thailog playing bass. #14 in an ongoing saga.


Double Date   
By Christine Morgan   
http://www.sabledrake.com   
christine@sabledrake.com 

* * *

  
Author's Note: the characters of Gargoyles are the property of Disney and   
are used here without their creators' knowledge or consent. All others   
property of the author; please don't borrow without permission.   
  
#14 in an ongoing Gargoyles fanfic saga  


* * *

  
_(Owen Burnett, voice over) "Previously, on Gargoyles ..."  
[A dorm room of the Sterling Academy]  
Birdie Yale -- "We're going to be pals, Aiden. We're going to have  
a blast. Really wild times. I mean it."  
Aiden Ferguson -- "I'm not much for wild times."  
Birdie Yale -- "That's okay. This is school, right? You're here to  
learn. You'll learn."  
[Cut to a scene of the woods]  
Aiden (holding out Hecate's Wand) -- "Maybe you should take this  
back. I let you down. I'm sorry."  
Owen (shakes head) -- "Keep it. I am certain you will discipline  
yourself more effectively than I could."  
Aiden -- "I won't use it again! I promise!"  
Xanatos -- "Don't make that kind of promise, Aiden. Fate loves to  
make a person break a vow."_   
  
* *   
  
_The Sterling Academy, 3:40 P.M._   
  
Aiden spoke out loud to her computer. "Oh, you lucky!"  
"What?" Birdie Yale looked up from a pile of chemistry notes.  
"Talking to me, Ferguson?"  
"No, to Lex. This e-mail says he's going to the concert tonight!"  
"Not the concert in Central Park!" Birdie shot out of her chair and  
circled around behind Aiden to stare at the screen. "Not Scarlet Angel's  
special Blue Moon Concert!"  
"Yeah, that's the one." Aiden sighed. "I wish I could go!"  
"You and half the world! Wow, if I had eighty bucks to spare ...  
their manager and bass player, Ebon, is finally going to appear on stage!  
He's not even in the videos!"  
"I love that band."  
"Who doesn't? A year ago, they were nobodies, and now they're  
megastars! They're the coolest!"  
"And Lex gets to go! Him and Broadway both!"  
"Must be great, getting in for free," Birdie said.  
"Yeah, but the seats aren't the best --" Aiden broke off and looked  
around at her roommate, eyes wide.  
"Gotcha!" Birdie declared smugly. "He's one of those gargoyles,  
isn't he? I knew it!"  
"How'd you know?" Aiden gasped.  
"Put it together. Bits and pieces. Oh, and one day I needed to  
borrow a highlighter and I found this." Birdie slid open Aiden's desk drawer  
and pulled out a framed photograph of the entire clan. "So, which one is  
Lex? Lemme guess. The little green guy here, the one that looks like Gollum  
with wings."  
"Birdie, please don't tell!"  
"Who'm I going to tell? Aunt Margot?" Birdie snorted. "Hey, you  
want to date a gargoyle, it's your business. How come you aren't going to the  
concert?"  
"Owen doesn't pick me up until tomorrow afternoon. The concert's  
tonight."  
"So let's go! I've got a car. I'll drive us down, you get us in."  
"I can't afford tickets!"  
Birdie rolled her eyes patiently. "Hel-lo! We'll sit on the roof. You  
said someone named Broadway is going?" She studied the picture again.  
"Hmm. Is this him, with more muscles than the Dallas Cowboy's offensive  
line?"  
"That's Goliath," Aiden said, not even having to look.  
"No kidding. I could go for a guy like that."  
"He's got a girlfriend, and she's got a gun. That one is Broadway."  
"Cute. He looks like he could handle a woman of substance like  
me." Birdie patted her full hips and grinned. "So we double date."  
"I don't know," Aiden said doubtfully. "We've got school  
tomorrow. But Lex sure would be surprised."  
"Come on, Ferguson, live a little!"  
"Okay, okay. We'll go."  
"Hey, I've got an idea!"  
"What idea?" Aiden asked, not sure she liked the look on Birdie's  
face.  
"Want to _really_ surprise them?"  
* *   
  
_Central Park, 7:55 P.M._   
  
"This is going to be great!" Broadway called enthusiastically over  
the rush of the wind.  
"The concert of the century!" Lex agreed.  
In the east, the blue moon was peering between the skyscrapers. It  
wasn't blue in color, just called that because it was the second full moon  
within the calendar month, a rare and special event. Like tonight's concert.  
"I wish Angela had come," Broadway said. He frowned. "I never  
understand her. I think she's mad at me, but I don't know why."  
"Better apologize, then," Lex advised.  
"I didn't do anything!"  
"Apologize anyway. That's what you're supposed to do with  
females."  
"Yeah? When did you become such an expert?"  
"I'm not. Talon told me. Hey, there it is! Look at all the people!"  
Lex swooped closer to the throng revealed by crisscrossing spotlights. A  
huge screen had been put up, mechanical arms carried cameramen back and  
forth. The stage was covered with monolithic speakers and amplifiers, an  
electronic Stonehenge.  
Broadway pointed out a likely spot atop a control center, where  
they would have a good view but be sheilded from sight by the angle of the  
roof. He touched down and leaned over the edge. "Great!" he repeated.  
"Yeah!" Lex scampered back and forth along the roof, studying  
what he could see of the equipment.  
The warm-up act, some forgettable Seattle grunge band, was just  
coming onstage when Lex heard a cry of alarm from above. He looked up,  
and gaped in shock.  
Broadway followed his gaze and was likewise stunned. Too  
stunned to get out of the way as an out-of-control gargoyle careened toward  
him. An out-of-control, utterly unfamiliar, voluptuous and rose-colored  
female gargoyle.  
"Look out!" she cried, and collided full-tilt with Broadway. They  
tumbled across the roof and crashed into a thick pipe, coming to rest with  
the female sitting on top of him.  
She shook a mass of burgundy-streaked black curls out of her  
brown eyes as she looked down at Broadway.  
"Hey, oops," she said. "Guess that's one way to make an impression  
on a guy!" To emphasize her words, she bounced up and down a couple of  
times on his ample gut.  
"Oof! Ugh!" Broadway replied wittily.  
A shadow flickered over them, accompanied by a "fwhoop!" Lex  
looked up again and saw another female coming in for a considerably more  
graceful landing.  
She was small, grey in color, and had wings that stretched from  
wrist to ankle like his. She wore an oversized and faded Pack T-shirt with  
the sleeves ripped all the way down the sides, the hem tucked under her legs,  
split in the back, and the whole works tied together in a big knot at the small  
of her back.  
From just above her brow ridges, a bony crest like that of a  
pterodactyl swept back in a thin curve. On either side of that crest, beige-  
blond hair spilled to her shoulders. She carried a tote bag with "I (heart)  
N.Y." written on it.  
She landed a few feet away and smiled at him. Around her neck  
was a silver chain, and a filigree heart-shaped pendant.  
He recognized that necklace. It had been his birthday present to ...  
"Aiden?!?"  
* *   
  
_Manhattan, 6:50 P.M. (flashback)_   
  
"It's almost seven. Shouldn't we get started?" Birdie urged.  
"This really isn't a good idea," Aiden said, but it was token protest  
because she was already opening her tote bag and taking out the box.  
"It'll be fine. If it doesn't work, you can tell everyone it was my  
idea."  
"Oh, I will," Aiden promised. Even through the closed lid, she  
could sense the tingle of magic. "I'll tell them you subjected me to  
unbelievable peer pressure."  
"Peer pressure is when a bunch of jerks try to get you to do  
something you don't want to do. I'm your friend, and this is something you  
really want. Face it."  
"You're impossible to argue with, Miss Yale." Her best, completely  
unconvincing MacBeth imitation. She unlocked the box. Inside was a long  
thin bundle of rolled silk. She unwound it and picked up the wand.  
It didn't look like much, just a plain gnarled stick. But when her  
fingers wrapped around it, the wand pulsed briefly with twinkling silver  
light.  
"Me first," Birdie said. "What do I do?"  
"Um ... just stand there, and think about being a gargoyle," Aiden  
said.  
She shut her eyes, reached deep into herself for the power that  
Owen had taught her how to tap. In the darkness of her mind, she saw a box  
opening, not the wand's box but a huge chest, a treasure chest, filled with  
round silver beads like pearls.  
She envisioned her hand plunging into the chest, feeling the cool  
rolling of the beads on her skin. She selected one, drew it forth. Closed that  
mental fist around it.  
"Oh, wow," Birdie breathed.  
Aiden opened her eyes.  
The wand was glowing, its light spilling over Aiden like a cascade  
of liquid silver.   
She raised the wand, banished all uncertainties, and pointed it at  
Birdie. Latin phrases bubbled through her mind, but strangely, she felt  
herself most strongly thinking of "Willow," a movie she'd seen and loved as  
a kid. The wand -- why hadn't she seen it before? -- looked exactly like the  
one from the movie.  
"Lockmor dan Elora. Tuatha dan ue. Tuatha tuatha." She wasn't  
sure if she was remembering the words right, but they felt good and strong  
and true in her mouth. The words that plead for change.  
Puck had said that any words meaningful to her would be  
meaningful to the wand.  
A filament of light spun out toward Birdie. It coiled around her feet  
and up her body, weaving a cocoon of pure silver. It brightened until Aiden  
had to shield her eyes, and then burst apart in a shower of sparkling stars,  
which sank glimmering to the ground and winked out.  
Aiden looked at Birdie. "Gosh," she said in a very small voice.  
"Too cool!" Birdie exclaimed, holding her taloned, three-fingered  
hands in front of her face.  
Her skin had darkened to a deep rose hue that shaded to black on  
the backs of the batlike wings that slowly unfolded behind her. Twin horns  
sprouted from her forehead, coiling back along the sides of her head like  
ram's horns, encircling pointed ears from which many earrings still dangled.  
Her face hadn't changed much, except for the larger eyes and the sharp  
teeth. Her body was also much the same, on the borderline between  
curvaceous and fat, except that the flesh looked more solid.  
"Are you okay?" Aiden gasped.  
"Yeah," Birdie said, taking a few unsteady steps on her new,  
clawed feet. "Whoops! My balance is all screwed."  
"Sorry about your clothes," Aiden said, pointing at the tattered  
ruins of Birdie's purple leather halter and black, acid-splotched jeans. Her  
sneakers had all but exploded, leaving nothing but ragged rings around her  
raised ankles.  
"Hey, no big deal." She flexed her wings carefully. "I'm not exactly  
thinking about my clothes right now, you know?"  
"Yeah."  
"I wish Aunt Margot could see this! She'd freak!"  
"Well," Aiden said, digging her camera out of her bag, "you could  
send her a picture."  
"Great!" Birdie posed and flashed all of her teeth in a wide grin.  
"How's that?"  
"Not exactly the cover of Vogue. The Daily Tattler, maybe."  
"What about Playgargoyle?"  
Aiden laughed and took the picture. "I think we should submit it  
for your yearbook photo!"  
"I will if you will. Okay, Aiden, your turn."  
"I don't know ..."  
"Come on! I did it!"  
Aiden wavered, gazing at the wand in her hand. It glowed faintly,  
expectantly. Even as she looked at it, the light brightened.  
"Here goes. But only for tonight!"  
"Yeah, yeah," Birdie said. "At sunrise the coach and four turns  
back into a pumpkin and a bunch of mice. I get the picture. Move it,  
Ferguson, it's getting late."  
She closed her eyes, turned the wand toward herself, thought of  
gargoyles, and uttered the words again. Through her eyelids, she could see  
the encompassing silver glow. A sensation, a whole-body heat ripple, passed  
over her painlessly.  
* *   
  
_Central Park, 8:15 P.M._   
  
"We wanted to surprise you," Aiden finished, after telling them  
how she and Birdie had come to be here in these new forms.  
"You did! It's great! Now I know how Goliath felt during that  
mirror thing." Lex said. He grinned. "Interesting outfit!"  
She flushed lavendar. "It's Birdie's shirt. My clothes just couldn't  
handle these." She extended her arms and looked at the pale, tissue-thin  
membranes. "But I had to find something to put on."  
"Hey, you didn't have to go to any trouble on my account!" Lex  
winked.  
She flushed darker. "I don't see how you can wear anything at all!"  
"I don't _have_ to, if you'd rather --"  
"Lexington!" She giggled.  
"See? Told you he'd like it," Birdie said. She twined her arm  
through Broadway's, who looked like he wasn't quite operating on all  
cylinders just yet. "So, where's our seats, big guy? Is this your first date?"  
"Um, kind of. My first blind date, that's for sure."  
Birdie tossed her head and laughed throatily. "That's okay; you  
don't have to kiss me goodnight unless you want to."  
"Um ...!" He bobbled his head happily as she led him to the edge of  
the roof and perched close beside him.  
"Actually, look," Lex said, motioning to his side. "There's a space  
here, see? Where the wings don't quite connect. My belt goes through there.  
A couple generations before I was hatched, when humans settled on the  
highlands, our elders thought it would help us get along with them if we  
wore clothes, like they did. Some, with wings like me, couldn't very well. So  
when we were hatchlings, they'd make cuts here and here, and thread a belt  
or cord through."  
"That's awful! Didn't it hurt? How come it didn't heal when you  
turned to stone?"  
"I don't remember it hurting. And with the belt there, it just sort of  
healed around it and left a hole."  
She nodded in understanding. "It still sounds cruel, but I've seen  
parents at the mall having thier babies' ears pierced, so I guess it's not that  
different. I had wondered how you wore that, though."  
"You could've asked me before," he said.  
"I didn't want to sound like I was ... you know, making a pass or  
something."  
"Aiden! Lex!" Birdie called. "Show's about to start!"  
* *   
  
_Central Park, 10:30 P.M._   
  
Scarlet Angel was halfway through their biggest hit, *When Night  
Falls,* and Aiden listened to the lyrics with gargoyle's ears, thinking that it  
was no wonder Lex and the others really liked their music.  
"When night falls, we shed our skin,  
We find our love deep as the sky  
When night falls, we feel the wind,  
We spread our wings and fly."  
She turned to the others to say something about how that could  
have been written for gargoyles, and saw that Birdie had Broadway in a  
major lip-lock.  
Nor were they alone. In the dim, moody lighting, two-thirds of the  
audience were making out while the band swung into a low, pulsing  
instrumental segment.  
Lex was looking at her, a direct and intense look unlike his usual  
cute, shy glance. "You're really beautiful like this." He reached up and ran  
his hand along the crest that topped her head. "I mean, you were pretty  
before, but now ... it's incredible!"  
She shivered at his touch. "Lex?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Do ... do you want to kiss me?"  
He grinned. "Sure!"  
The few times they'd kissed before had always been sweet, brief,  
and chaste. Aiden knew from the moment his lips touched hers that this kiss  
was going to be different.  
He grasped her wrists and raised their arms overhead, causing their  
wings to stretch against each other. His tail coiled lightly around her ankle.  
She flexed the unfamiliar muscles to move her own tail, but  
unbalanced herself and toppled backward onto the roof, pulling him with  
her.  
Lex caressed her side, where her inner wing met her body, and she  
shivered again. It was just like the time one of her few dates had started  
nibbling on her neck, only better. She could tell he was excited too, really  
excited judging by what she felt against her leg. His hand crept from her  
side to the edge of her makeshift garment.  
Aiden tensed, not because she didn't want him touching her there  
because she did, but because she was sure he'd be disappointed by what he  
found. Even Tina Diamant, only fifteen, had more in the boobs department  
than she did. For that matter, Tina had "done it" twice, while Aiden had the  
dubious honor of being the only virgin in her clique of friends. It would be  
awfully nice to have that awkward stigma out of the way.  
Lex, nibbling on her neck in exactly the right way, was inching her  
shirt over, as if he thought she wouldn't notice. Wishing he'd stop but at the  
same time hoping he wouldn't, Aiden stroked his shoulders and back. His  
muscles were wiry and tight beneath skin smooth as fine leather.  
His hand cupped her breast. Aiden gasped, then whispered, "I'm  
sorry I'm so small!"  
He chuckled softly against her throat. "That would be my line, if  
you'd ever seen Goliath getting out of the shower. You're perfect."  
She blushed hotly. She'd never actually seen a man without his  
clothes, just that awful "Naked Shakespeare" video Birdie had rented for  
one of the Tuesday socials. The rest of the girls had watched with many a  
catcall and derisive hoot. Aiden, although shocked, had at least gotten a few  
of her unasked questions answered. Now, though, she found herself  
wondering if gargoyles were any different from the men in the video, and  
how close she was to finding out.  
Her roving fingers found and traced the places where Lex's wings  
joined his back. His whole body tensed against hers. "If you keep doing that,  
I'm going to go crazy," he warned.  
"Sorry!" She moved her hands.  
"You don't _have_ to stop. I like it. Do you ... like what I'm  
doing?"  
"Yes," she said, barely audible.  
"Hey, you two!" Birdie said suddenly. "Don't get too carried  
away!"  
Horribly embarrassed, Aiden quickly righted herself, tugging her  
shirt back into place. Lex cleared his throat and tried to look innocent. "We  
just fell over," he said.  
"Oh, is _that_ what happened?" Birdie teased. "What did it look  
like to you, Broadway?"  
"I was looking at you," he admitted, grinning widely.  
"Oh, you're such a big old teddy bear!" She grabbed him by the  
ears and planted another loud, wet kiss on him.  
The song had ended, and there was a long pause that gradually  
brought the crowd to an expectant hush.  
The lead singer, an ethereal brunette named Julianna, came forth  
into a single spotlight. "We have something special for you tonight," she  
intoned in her haunting voice. "Tonight, for the first time, our manager and  
bass player Ebon has agreed to appear. He'll be joining me in a song off our  
next album. We call this one *Heart of Stone.* We hope you like it."  
Julianna dropped her head, her long dark hair streaming over her  
pale shoulders. The music began, an eerie drifting melody. She slowly,  
slowly raised her gaze skyward, and every eye in the audience did likewise.  
A dark shape was silhouetted against the moon. Before anyone  
could so much as draw in a gasp, it glided down and landed on the stage.  
"It's a gargoyle!" Aiden said.  
"It's Thailog!" Lex and Broadway cried in unison.  
"I thought he was dead!" Broadway added.  
"Shut up, you guys!" Birdie scolded.  
The massive black gargoyle bowed to Julianna. Some screams rang  
from the crowd, but most were transfixed by either awe or fear. A roadie  
came forth with an overlarge bass guitar, obviously modified to withstand  
the strumming of those thick clawed fingers. He began to play and Julianna  
began to sing, and Aiden leaned stunned against Lexington.  
"He looks like Goliath!"  
"He's a clone," Lex explained, his fists clenched. "We've got to do  
something!"  
"Let's get him!" Broadway jumped to his feet.  
"Are you nutso?" Birdie swept her tail to knock his feet out from  
under him and yanked him back down. "What are you going to do, fly down  
there and attack him?"  
"Well, yeah," Broadway said as if that was a silly question.  
"He's an enemy! Pure evil!" Lex said.  
"Wants to control the world!" Broadway added.  
"So why's he playing bass for a rock band?" Birdie asked.  
The two males looked at each other, flummoxed.  
"You can't attack him," Aiden said, trying to be reasonable. "You'd  
start a panic, and ruin the whole concert."  
"Besides, he's really good!" Birdie pointed out.  
The gargoyle, Ebon or Thailog or whoever, suddenly joined  
Julianna in song. Their voices, hers high, his a rich growl exactly like  
Goliath's, mingled perfectly.  
"It can't be Thailog," Broadway said, shaking his head.  
"It is!" Lex insisted. "It has to be! But ... it doesn't make any  
sense."  
By the time Ebon and Julianna reached the end of *Heart of  
Stone,* a love song sure to hit the top of the charts in no time, the shadowy  
sea of the crowd was ablaze with lighters held high over admiring, cheering  
fans.  
"Thank you!" Ebon needed no microphone for his words to reach  
every ear. "I know this is a bit unusual, but we are making advance copies of  
our new album available tonight, to you, our most devoted fans. It will not  
be in the stores for another month. Tonight, under this blue moon, you have  
the chance to own it before the rest of the world."  
Excited cheers filled the air, along with the rustle of what had to be  
hundreds of people checking their wallets. Aiden grabbed her tote bag to see  
what her financial status was.  
"Smart," Birdie said. "They can charge twice what it'll go for in the  
stores, and people will still suck it up like a big cherry Slurpee."  
"For all of Scarlet Angel," Ebon said, "thank you, and good night!"  
The stage went dark, and then the house lights came up. People  
hurried for the exits and the waiting vendors.  
"Now we get him!" Lex cried.  
"Yeah! Four to one odds!" Broadway leaped up again.  
"Oh, no way! You're not dragging us into this!" Birdie declared.  
"We've got to stop him, whatever he's doing!" Lex said.  
"You mean, fight? Us?" Aiden gasped, looking down at her slight  
body.  
Broadway frowned, reconsidering. "Well, couldn't you zap him  
with your magic wand or something?"  
"No!" Aiden said decisively. She instinctively thrust a hand into  
her tote bag and felt the familiar shape of the wand, and then a bad thought  
ocurred to her. The wand would only work in the hands of a human  
sorceress, and tonight, at least, that wasn't her. "I couldn't, even if I wanted  
to."  
"We're talking about one of my favorite bands!" Birdie threw back  
her wings and put her hands on her hips. "I'm not about to attack them! I  
think you'd better explain what this is all about."  
Hastily, their words tumbling over each other, Lex and Broadway  
told a wild story about the evil, money-grubbing clone. How he'd taken  
Xanatos to the tune of several million, been partners with Demona against  
MacBeth in Paris, and ultimately created his own army of clones to attack  
the clan.  
"So where's he been all this time?" Birdie asked.  
Lex shrugged. "I don't know! We thought he died in the fire! He's  
as bad as Demona!"  
FWHOOOP!  
Ebon landed a few yards away and fixed his crimson gaze hungrily  
upon them.  
"Quick! Scatter!" Lex grabbed Aiden and threw her off the roof.  
She squealed in terror, then remembered that she had wings and spread  
them, the air catching her. Lex looped around and aimed a kick at Ebon's  
head.  
"You girls get out of here!" Broadway ordered.  
"The hell you say!" Birdie yelled.  
Ebon, seemingly startled, didn't even try to dodge Lex's kick. It  
drove him to his knees. "Wait! I am not your enemy!" he cried.  
"Yeah, right, since when?" Lex turned on the proverbial dime and  
drove both feet into Ebon's back just as he was starting to get up, sending  
him face-first into the roof.  
Pandemonium erupted as the lingering remnants of the crowd as  
they caught sight of the gargoyles overhead.  
"Please! I want to talk to you!" Ebon rose up just in time for  
Broadway to launch a roundhouse punch. This time, the big black gargoyle  
was better prepared. He caught it in his fist, thrust one foot into Broadway's  
midsection, and sent him sailing head over heels.  
"Broadway!" Birdie dove after her date, catching him less than ten  
feet above the heads of the crowd. She flipped him skyward again.  
"Why do you attack me?" Ebon roared. "I am one of your own  
kind!"  
Lex dropped on him, clinging like a spider, claws digging in. Ebon  
hissed in pain, tore him off and flung him away. Broadway ripped up a huge  
chunk of paneling and flattened Ebon from behind.  
"Broadway, jeez!" Birdie cried. "Quit it!"  
Scarlet Angel's keyboard player, a tall skinny seventies throwback  
who called himself Aquarius, shouted into the microphone. "Hey, gang,  
don't panic! It's like, part of the show, you know!"  
At that, much of the panic turned to embarrassed laughter, but there  
was still enough ugliness in the atmosphere to worry Aiden. "We've got to  
get out of here!" She swooped down to Lex, groggily pushing himself onto  
all fours, and helped him up.  
Broadway and Birdie were tusseling atop the paneling, him trying  
to get loose, her trying to hold him back. Pinned under them was Ebon,  
groaning. He suddenly threw himself to his feet, arms and wings flexing in a  
single powerful motion that flipped the paneling as if it weighed as much as  
a playing card.  
He advanced toward the two, his own eyes flaring embers, fists  
clenched.  
"Uh-oh!" Birdie said. "Now you've done it!"  
"Come on," Broadway challenged, making that just-try-it-buddy  
gesture.  
"All I wanted was to talk to you," Ebon growled. "But you attack  
me for no reason? Is it true, then? Are you without honor?"  
"Look who's talking!" Broadway snarled. "You wouldn't know  
honor if it bit you on the --"  
"No reason!" Lex shrieked. "We've got plenty of reason, Thailog,  
and you know it!"  
Genuine confusion paused him. "Thailog?"  
The roof access door slammed open and a bunch of security guards  
piled out. "All right, everybody freeze!"  
"Shit!" Birdie cried emphatically. "I am _not_ going to jail looking  
like this!" She gave Broadway a Herculean shove that sent him off the roof,  
and dove after him.  
Lex took a split second to assess the situation and took to the air,  
pulling Aiden by the hand.  
The last thing they heard as they glided rapidly away was Ebon's  
voice like mournful thunder in the air. "Wait! Come back ..."  
* *   
  
_Central Park, Midnight._   
  
Ebon slumped, head in his large hands.  
The backstage room was temporarily quiet, with most of the crew  
out front selling the albums and beginning the cleanup process.  
Aquarius and Julianna exchanged a glance. Finally, the slim, pale  
brunette placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's all right, Ebon."  
"They attacked me," he said. "I merely approached them, and they  
attacked me as if I was a monster."  
"They don't even know you," Julianna said soothingly.  
Aquarius, in the middle of rolling a joint in hopes that the  
secondhand smoke would mellow the big dude, said thoughtfully, "Maybe  
they do."  
Slowly, Ebon raised his head. "From ... before?"  
"You had to come from somewhere, man."  
Silence fell over them, each thinking back.  
* *   
  
_FLASHBACK -- One year ago ... (Aquarius)_   
  
Aquarius, pleasantly stoned, sat on the lid of the dumpster and tried  
to ignore the raised voices so he could enjoy his trip.  
Raised voice, actually. He could only hear Nick, but he knew  
Julianna was also in the converted schoolbus that served as transportation  
and home.  
Pagan and Johnny had made themselves scarce, for which Aquarius  
didn't blame them. Nobody wanted to be around Nick when he got like this.  
Julianna had no choice, but that was between the two of them. Aquarius  
wasn't about to get involved in matters concerning a guy and his chick,  
especially when the guy in question didn't share the same attitudes of peace  
and brotherhood that he did.  
Johnny, their guitarist, had gone into the abandoned amusement  
park, scoping for things to salvage or sell in hopes of extending their budget  
a little. Things had been tight, since the last gig had fallen through and the  
skunk who owned the place had refused to pay them for the two sets they  
_had_ done before Julianna passed out midway through their best number.  
As for Pagan ... Aquarius prided himself on being able to spot  
something attractive in every chick, but with her, it had been a damn  
challenge. Built like a fire hydrant, short and stocky, with a shock of green  
and orange hair, she didn't have much about her to please the outer eye.  
Bitchy, abrasive, and opinionated, that also left the inner eye unpleased. Her  
drumming was nothing special and she couldn't sing either.  
He didn't want to think about Pagan. From there, his trip seemed  
likely to go off on some totally unwelcome tangents. He tried to clear his  
mind and focused instead on the skeletal scaffolding of the old roller  
coaster.  
To his delight, he saw winged figures looping and soaring around  
the wooden frame. Demons, or angels, like the red tattoo on Nick's arm that  
had given the band their name.  
"Far out," Aquarius muttered.  
Bright blue bolts and blazing beams, and wasn't it cool the way his  
thoughts were rolling back and forth like pool balls on the green felt surface  
of his mind? The dark, flying forms spun in dizzying aerial acrobatics,  
searing the sky with haloes of energy.  
The roller coaster -- too bad that baby had closed down; they didn't  
build 'em like that anymore; and wouldn't it have been a gas to ride it? --  
now appeared to be on fire. Like it was in Six Flags over Hell or something.  
Cars of red-hot metal, carrying flaming riders with their hands held high,  
sped along the slopes and curves.  
"What the fuck?" Nick's question cut into Aquarius' daze, but he  
didn't lose the vision.  
Nick Diamond was standing by the dumpster, in a fan of orange  
light that painted his bare chest and glinted off the beer bottle in his hand.  
Of course he'd be drinking, Aquarius thought. Beating up your chick was  
thirsty work.  
The chick in question stood behind Nick at a distance occasioned  
either by fear or pain. From the way she was standing, hunched slightly,  
Aquarius guessed the latter. Her face was unmarked as always, but drawn in  
pained lines that made her look fifteen years older than she was.  
Firelight danced in her wide eyes. Aquarius realized they were both  
staring toward the roller coaster. Seeing the fire.  
"Oh, wow, it's real," he said in a slow, stunned voice.  
Johnny came running up from that direction, breathless and scared  
shitless. "Gang war," he gasped. "They're tearing up the joint!"  
"What are you talking about?" Nick snapped.  
Just then, the entire blazing structure collapsed. The crash was loud  
even from here. Sparks and smoke billowed up.  
"We gotta get out of here," Johnny panted. He turned to Julianna,  
saw the look on her face, and scowled. "Damn it, did you have to hit her  
again?"  
"Don't start with me."  
"It's okay," Julianna said softly.  
"You shouldn't have to put up with his shit," Johnny persisted.  
"You want a helping?" Nick raised a fist.  
"Hey, this is not serene," Aquarius said, still drifting.  
Pagan rushed up, her hair a screaming horror of orange and green  
spikes. "We better book," she said. "Cops will be coming."  
Aha, something that concerned Nick more than busting Johnny's  
ass. Aquarius knew that, in addition to the baggie of weed and pills with his  
own stuff, there were five grams of coke hidden in the glove compartment.  
And a gun. Big time, baby. No wonder they never had any cash.  
Something passed by over their heads. To Aquarius, that moment  
seemed to streeeetch out in time, giving him a good, long look at the  
blueskinned she-devil. She was streaked with soot and blood and flying like  
a bat out of hell.  
Julianna shrieked, a high, crystalline sound that made Aquarius'  
skull want to vibrate apart. It ended abruptly when Nick broke his only rule  
and cracked her one across the chops.  
"You son of a bitch," Pagan said, but her voice was oddly empty.  
"Shut up and get in the bus," Nick ordered.  
By the time they had rounded up their belongings and loaded up,  
they could all hear the distant wail of sirens over the snap crackle pop of the  
fire. They piled into the bus, Johnny behind the wheel and Nick right behind  
him, Aquarius in the back with the chicks. Pagan's drums, with "Scarlet  
Angel" scrawled across them in red spray paint, rolled and rattled fitfully.  
Johnny drove with the headlights off, not wanting to attract  
attention of the cops, but then couldn't find the gap in the chain-link fence  
that they'd used to get onto the amusement park grounds in the first place.  
Nick started swearing at him, a string of colorful epithets that had  
to do with his parents, his sexual preferences, and his personal hygeine.  
Johnny, unwisely, started giving back as good as he was getting.  
Nick reached for him, and then something large and dark loomed in the  
windshield.  
Julianna shrieked again, cut off this time when the bus struck  
something solid, rocked violently forward, shuddered to a stop and stalled.  
"We hit something!" Johnny cried. His nose was bleeding but he  
didn't seem to notice.  
"Brilliant, Einstein!" Nick yanked him out of the driver's seat. "If  
you broke the goddam bus, you're dogfood!"  
"What was it?" Pagan asked. "It looked like it had eyes!"  
"Bullsh --" Nick started, and then the dark form rose up again.  
It did have eyes, eyes that glowed a hellish red, and wings that  
spread to reveal a thickly muscled chest. Aquarius heard music pounding in  
his head, *A Night on Bald Mountain* from "Fantasia."  
All five of them screamed, attaining in their terror a harmony they'd  
never managed onstage. The monstrous figure brought its fists down on the  
windshield, turning it into a gummy mass of safety glass, then slumped onto  
the front of the bus and slid down.  
Silence. Except for the sirens, closer now.  
"Is it gone?" Julianna's voice was quavering.  
"What was it?" Johnny whispered. "A bear, do you think?"  
"Bear, my ass, it had wings!" Pagan hissed.  
Silence, sirens, and then a deep groan.  
"It's hurt," Julianna said.  
"B.F.D." Nick leaned his face close to Johnny, biting distance from  
the other guy's nose. "You get us out of here right now, understand?"  
"Yeah, sure, Nick," Johnny babbled. He twisted the key. The bus  
emitted a grinding croak and went dead. Johnny turned back to Nick, his  
eyes bulging blue marbles. He tried to grin.  
"That's it. I'm going to kill you," Nick declared. "Right after you  
get your ass out there and see what's wrong with the bus."  
"But ... there's something out there!" Johnny looked and sounded  
all of four years old.  
"So be quick!"  
Johnny glanced at the rest of them. Julianna looked away, Pagan  
swallowed, and Aquarius shrugged. "Heavy, man."  
Nick threw the lever that opened the door and gestured. Johnny,  
with the expression of someone about to walk the plank, faced the short  
flight of stairs and gulped. He descended in mincing, I-gotta-pee steps.  
Because of the condition of the windshield, they couldn't see him,  
but his voice carried clearly enough. "Oh, hey, he's wearing a Batman suit!  
No, wait ... that's not a cape ... those suckers are real! Real wings!"  
Nick popped open the glove box and elicited matching gasps from  
the chicks when he produced the gun. He sprang out to join Johnny.  
"Shit!" Nick said. "It's a monster!"  
Pagan got out, and Aquarius followed, beginning to wonder if this  
was all just a stronger trip than he'd bargained for. Julianna was right behind  
him because she never could stand being left by herself. Probably, he  
realized in a flash of insight, why she stayed with Nick, figuring that his  
temper was a bearable price to pay.  
They gathered around the monster. The moon was bright, bright  
enough to reveal plenty of details. Black skin, white hair, wings, the works.  
It was pretty banged up. Bleeding from dozens of gouges that looked almost  
like claw marks, burnt in places. There was a large dent in the front of the  
bus which molded to the creature's shape.  
"He's been in a fight," Julianna said in that same soft voice. "The  
bus didn't do all of this." She knelt and extended a hand, then yelped she  
was jerked roughly backward.  
"Don't touch it." Nick was waving that gun around in a way that  
made Aquarius glad he'd taken all the bullets out when Nick wasn't around.  
"Just shut up and let me think a minute."  
"It's a gargoyle, I think," Johnny said. "They were on tv."  
"Damn it, I said shut up!"  
Johnny, noticing the gun for the first time and finding himself  
looking at the wrong end of it, shut up. He inched carefully away from Nick.  
"Okay," Nick said, running his free hand through his hair. "Okay,  
here's what we do. We take it with us."  
"What?" Pagan blurted.  
"This thing's got to be worth a fortune," Nick explained. "The zoo,  
the university, hell, the newspapers. We'll be set! No more third-rate gigs!  
We're talking real money here!"  
"But what about him?" Julianna asked.  
"Yeah, right, good point. We'll have to tie it up, in case it comes  
around."  
"That isn't what I meant," she said.  
"I don't know," Pagan said. "He looks pretty strong. We don't have  
any rope, and we'd need chains."  
"I don't even think we could lift him." Johnny was still inching  
away, eyes on the gun.  
"What the hell's the matter with you people?" Nick demanded.  
"This is our ticket! Johnny, get under the hood and fix the goddam bus. The  
rest of you, clear a space in the back."  
The bus turned out to be okay, just some stuff popped loose in the  
impact. They moved the creature, who hadn't stirred except for drawing  
long, draggy breaths, into the back. The windshield was useless, so Nick  
kicked it out.  
Johnny picked a cautious path around the back lot of the  
amusement park and found another gap in the fence. They got onto the street  
without being seen by any cops and were on their way, with the wind  
whistling through the hole at the front of the bus.  
With Nick up front directing Johnny, Julianna was free to patch up  
the creature with bandages made from sheets lifted from a cheap motel. She  
murmured in a low, soothing voice as she did so.  
Aquarius heard her gasp, and looked around to see the creature  
moving. His eyes, no longer hell-red, opened and focused on Julianna. She  
scooted away, almost fell into the drums, and ended up pressed against  
Pagan like a kid scared of the thunder.  
The creature lay still for a moment, then slowly raised his hands to  
his face. He explored the length of sheet wrapped around his head like a  
turban, wincing. He sat up, shifting his limbs. His gaze moved around the  
interior of the bus, finally settling on the people.  
"Where am I?" the creature asked in a deep, rumbling voice.  
Johnny and Nick, arguing about the best place to hole up until  
morning, were still unaware. The rest of them twitched in surprise.  
"He can talk," Pagan said, probably thinking she was speaking in a  
normal tone of voice instead of just barely above a shocked whisper.  
"Bitchin'," Aquarius said. He glanced at Julianna, figuring that she  
had dibs, but she cowered in wide-eyed alarm. "You're in our bus."  
"What happened to me?"  
"We sort of ran you over, man, but you were messed up even  
before then. Looked like you were in a fight."  
"What _are_ you?" Pagan asked. "Are you a gargoyle?"  
"I ... I don't know." He looked at himself, then back at them, then to  
himself again, taking in the differences.  
"_Who_ are you?" Aquarius tried.  
"I am ... I don't know."  
"Oh, hey, maybe he's lost his memory," Aquarius said. "Do you  
remember anything?"  
He shut his eyes, rubbed gingerly at his head. "Nothing. Nothing at  
all." And then he passed out cold.  
* *   
  
_FLASHBACK -- Eleven months ago ... (Julianna)  
_   
Brushing her hair in long, slow strokes, she became aware of eyes  
upon her.  
She gasped and spun, but it was only the creature they'd named  
Ebon for his glossy black skin.  
Without a word, he came closer. Julianna cringed against the piece  
of plywood that served as her dressing table. She brandished the brush  
halfheartedly, although she would never dare strike at anyone.  
Ebon seized her wrist with surprising gentleness and turned it over,  
examining the faded pink scars that crossed the white flesh. His expression  
was unreadable. "Who did this to you?"  
"Nobody," she whispered. "I did it."  
"You?"  
She pulled feebly, not really expecting him to let go but he did. "It's  
nothing." She wasn't about to sit here and talk about her wrists to this  
inhuman creature. Not her wrists, not the overdoses, not the time she'd  
started her mother's car in the closed garage and was only prevented from  
gassing herself by the untimely arrival of the butler.  
Ebon clenched a fist and Julianna automatically prepared herself  
for a blow. His gaze, though, was far-seeing, his anger directed somewhere  
besides at her. She considered this with some amazement.  
"Why would you hurt yourself?" he asked.  
"Just leave me alone!" She meant it to be forceful but it came out  
pleading. "You couldn't understand. Nobody does." Nobody ever had. Not  
her parents, so determined that she would follow in her mother's operatic  
footsteps. Not her brothers, with their tennis whites and sports cars. Not the  
girls that had supposedly been her friends.  
Nick entered the bus, a crumpled brown paper bag in his arms, and  
halted when he saw them. His handsome, brooding face twisted into a scowl.  
"What's going on?"  
"Nothing," Julianna said. She put down her brush and got up,  
moving away from Ebon.  
"It damn well better be." Nick looked at Ebon, and clearly didn't  
like the way the creature was looking at him. "Something the matter?"  
"No." Ebon stalked out of the bus.  
"Asshole," Nick remarked once he was out of earshot. "I still think  
we should sell him."  
Julianna shrugged. While Nick was their manager, he couldn't do  
much with the other three steadfastly against the idea. They were fascinated  
by Ebon, by the way he turned to stone with the rising of the sun and  
awakened fully healed, by his amnesia and mysterious past, by the very fact  
of his existence.  
Besides, in the past few weeks while they made their way up the  
coast to Maine, Ebon had proved his usefulness in other ways. His  
suggestions on how they should manage what little money they had and how  
they should organize their gigs had been canny, clever, and unfailingly  
profitable. He watched over them at night like a guard dog. And he had  
already inspired Aquarius to write some new songs, which had been well-  
received by their audiences.  
"Was he making a pass at you?" Nick asked sharply.  
Julianna shook her head. It occurred to her that Nick was feeling  
threatened. Always before, he had been the one to handle the money and  
decide what gigs they would take. He'd been the one to write the songs.  
She frowned faintly. Part of what had drawn her to Nick in the first  
place was his appearance of strength and control. Nick, and the other tough  
guys before him. All the way back to Ron, who'd picked her up as a runaway  
and broken her arm one night in a drunken fury.  
Nick grabbed her shoulder, his fingers digging. "I don't want you  
around him. Is that clear?"  
She nodded. "Why would I be?"  
"I've seen how he looks at you. If he bugs you, you come and tell  
me, and I'll take care of it. I don't care what the others say."  
"Fine, Nick. Whatever you say."  
He let her go. "Good. Here, I got some food." He upended the bag,  
spilling cans of soup onto the floor.  
"Is that all you got?" she asked. "I thought we had more money  
than that."  
His fist shot out, a heavy stone, and punched her in the upper arm.  
She winced, putting a hand over it, knowing that there would be a huge dark  
bruise by morning. "That's plenty!"  
Julianna bowed her head. "I think I'm going to go get some fresh  
air."  
"Hurry back and clean this place up," Nick ordered.  
She ducked outside, skirting the campfire where Pagan, Johnny,  
and Aquarius were pretending they hadn't heard every word. She knew that  
they had. Hopelessness, a vast swamping wave of it, rolled over her.  
They were camped in a field outside a little town whose name she'd  
already forgotten. Some coastal tourist town in Maine.  
The gig last night and the night before had been a good one. They'd  
done a couple of the new songs and for the first time some of the kids had  
asked if Scarlet Angel had any albums. The club's owner had been so  
pleased he'd given them a fifty dollar bonus.  
And Nick had bought soup. Not even Campbell's but some generic  
store brand. The extra money went where it always had, into Nick's pocket  
and then out again.  
The others hated him, she knew. Hated him and feared him. They  
didn't understand that some people, like Julianna herself, needed guidance.  
Needed a firm hand. Nick loved her. He looked out for her.  
She wandered down to the rocky shore. The sea rushed and  
boomed in hollow caves beneath the large boulders and cliffs. Streaked  
silver and frosted with whitecaps in the moonlight, it was beautiful. Inviting.  
Without stopping to think about her actions, she started climbing  
one of the immense bluffs. Soon she was atop it, looking down at the waves,  
her hair blown by the breeze and the mist thick and salty in her face.  
The sea was power and peace. The sea kept its secrets well. The  
sea wouldn't care that a few months ago she'd gotten pregnant, and when  
she'd told Nick he had beaten her into a miscarriage. None of the others  
knew that; they only thought he'd hurt her worse than usual.  
Now she was a week late, and this time he would kill her. Or  
worse, he would make her leave. Without Nick to take care of her, to tell her  
what to do, she would be lost and adrift.  
"Oh, hey, man, come down from there!"  
She peered back and saw the unmistakable, gangling form of  
Aquarius. Beyond him, Johnny and Pagan were hurrying closer with Nick in  
tow. "It's Julianna," Pagan said. "I think she's going to jump!"  
Nick hollered up at her. "Knock it off, you stupid crotch! You're  
not impressing anybody!"  
Tears stung her eyes. This was the man she loved? In his voice she  
heard only contempt and exasperation. She hated him, she hated herself.  
There was no escape except one.  
Julianna stepped off the bluff.  
The moment her feet left the earth, her clouds of depression and  
self-loathing were whipped apart as if by a brisk wind. She shrieked,  
wanting her life, wanting a second chance, knowing that this time she had  
really done it.  
She twisted in the air, trying to take it back, seeing the bluff recede.  
And then, a dark shape against the moon, Ebon. He reached for her, his face  
a desperate mask of fear that he would be too late.  
His arms closed around her. His wings unfolded. Julianna's  
stomach did a roller-coaster dip. She choked on her scream.  
Here was strength without malice. Protection without a price. She  
suddenly wasn't afraid of him anymore.  
Julianna threw her arms tight around his neck and began to cry.  
* *   
  
_FLASHBACK -- Eleven months ago ... (Ebon)_  
  
  
When he saw her falling, her dark hair streaming, her eyes and  
mouth wide in terror, something inside of him had flared like a brilliant light  
bulb. There had been no hesitation, no second thoughts.  
And when he caught her and soared back toward the bluff with the  
human female cradled against his chest, he felt a sense of rightness and  
purpose even greater than that he'd known while going over the band's  
finances.  
Her tears were hot on his skin, her frail body trembling in his grasp.  
His protective instinct was an overpowering force.  
The others were staring. As he approached, Pagan began to cheer  
and Aquarius flashed him a peace sign. Johnny looked like he was about to  
faint. And Nick ...  
Nick stepped forward as Ebon landed and nodded brusquely.  
"Good job," he said. "Last thing we need is to have cops out here."  
Julianna, still a precious bundle in his arms, seemed to shrink in on  
herself as he spoke.  
"You bastard!" Pagan raged. "Julianna almost died, and all you can  
think about is the cops?"  
"Shut up, bitch!" He turned toward her threateningly but she stood  
her ground.  
"You hit me and you better kill me," she said. "Because if you  
don't, I'm coming for your balls. Got that, Nickie?"  
He gaped at her, then whirled and unloaded his temper on Ebon.  
"Get your paws off of her, damn you! I told her I didn't want you near her!"  
Ebon carefully set Julianna down. She folded into a posture of  
prayer, hands over her face. Johnny moved to comfort her, and Ebon rose to  
his full towering height over Nick.  
"You claim to be the leader, and this is how you treat your clan?"  
Ebon asked, his voice low but as menacing as a bestial roar would have  
been. "You do not protect them, you hurt them, you even do not care if they  
die?"  
"All right, that's it. You're out of here. I never want to see you  
again."  
"You won't," Ebon promised. He grabbed Nick by the shirtfront  
and dangled him over the bluff. "You won't see anything again!"  
"Hey, don't," Aquarius said mildly. "Don't kill him, man."  
All of the bluster had gone out of Nick as his feet swung hundreds  
of feet above the waves. He clutched Ebon's arm and blubbered something  
unintelligible.  
"He is worthless!" Ebon shook Nick back and forth. "A waste of  
skin!"  
"Drop him!" Pagan urged.  
"No!" Johnny said.  
Ebon looked at Julianna. "The vote stands, two for and two against.  
Yours will decide his fate."  
"I want him to go away," she said weakly. "But please don't kill  
him."  
"Very well." Ebon hauled Nick close. Nose to nose, he growled,  
"By her mercy are you spared."  
"Yeah, sure, anything you say!" Nick babbled.  
"Go. Now." Ebon cast him aside like the piece of trash that he was.  
Nick sailed ten feet and sprawled in the rocky soil, scraped and  
bruised. He unsteadily got to his feet, looked as if he was contemplating  
making a lunge at either Julianna or Ebon, and decided the better of it.  
The last they saw of him, he was staggering down the beach and  
out of their lives.  
* *   
  
_Central Park, 1:00 A.M._   
  
"It doesn't matter what happened before." Julianna stroked Ebon's  
thick white hair. "Who you were, or what you did. You're our friend. You  
saved my life."  
"You made us big," Aquarius said. "We couldn't have done it  
without you, man."  
He stood and gathered them both close in a hug. "You are my  
family, my clan. But I need to know where I come from. Who I am."  
An explosion ripped the door open. Ebon instinctively folded his  
wings around the two humans to protect them from the flying, flaming  
splinters.  
Men leaped through the smoking rubble, men in blue hoods,  
carrying sledgehammers.  
"It's over, gargoyle!" one of them shouted, hefting his hammer.  
"You'll not be corrupting the youth of this country with your evil messages  
anymore!"  
"Stay down!" Ebon commanded, and stepped forward to meet the  
threat. "Who are you?"  
"We are the Quarrymen! Here to shatter you!"  
Ebon felt his lip curl. "Come on, then!"  
"No! Ebon, no!" Julianna screamed.  
The first man slammed his hammer down. Ebon caught it and his  
back arched in pain as sizzling energy shot through him.  
All around him was chaos. Security guards and roadies were  
dispatched in a quick and confusng melee as more Quarrymen poured in.  
Johnny appeared out of nowhere, smashed his guitar over a hooded head,  
and then went down from a solid punch. He could hear Pagan cursing with  
such flair that a rap musician would have been shocked. Julianna was still  
screaming.  
Recovering from the burst of energy, Ebon rammed his fist into the  
man's chest hard enough to pulverize bone. His armor absorbed much of the  
blow, but still, when he struck the ground he didn't move again.  
Another Quarryman swung. Ebon jumped back out of the arc of the  
hammer. He grabbed a chair and used it to intercept the next strike. The  
chair was blown to bits. Ebon struck, the man ducked, and his hammer  
landed a solid blow on Ebon's shoulder.  
Flat on his back and in intense pain, Ebon could barely move. He  
saw the Quarryman standing over him, weapon raised high, about to strike.  
Something small and green came in like a cannonball. The  
Quarryman doubled over, and something small and grey walloped him on  
the head with a tote bag. Absurdly, Ebon had time to read the "I (heart)  
N.Y." legend as the man crashed to the floor.  
"More gargoyles!" one of the Quarrymen yelled. "Too many! Need  
backup! Retreat!"  
"Oh, no you don't!" a rose-hued female said, hiking her knee into  
his groin hard enough to lift his feet off the floor.  
The big blue one dodged a hammer strike, picked up the man that  
the small ones had decked, and hurled him at the rest.  
"Not even you deserve these guys," the small green gargoyle said  
to Ebon, seizing a cymbal and chucking it like a frisbee at the one who'd  
gotten kneed in the groin. It hit him in the jaw and knocked him out.  
Ebon saw one make a grab for Julianna and strength surged  
through him. He was over there without really knowing how he got there,  
caught the man by the belt, yanked him backward and sent him reeling into  
the wall. Julianna threw herself against him, sobbing.  
Quarrymen were scrambling for the door, those that could. The  
blue and rose gargoyles went in pursuit while the green one tore up handfuls  
of thick cable and began tying up the ones that were down.  
The grey female looked in her tote bag, tsked and said, "I hope I  
didn't break my camera. At least the wand is all right."  
"Thank you," Ebon said cautiously, some of his injuries holdovers  
from his last attempt to talk to these strange young gargoyles.  
"We saw their hovercraft," the green one said, pulling his knot  
viciously tight. "Followed them back here."  
"Why did you help me this time, and attack me before?" Ebon  
asked.  
"Like I said, not even you deserve these guys."  
The other two came back in, lugging a Quarryman between them.  
"The others got away," the blue one said in evident disgust as he hurled the  
body over with the rest. "Now, what do we do about Thailog?"  
Ebon sighed. "That name means nothing to me. I don't even know  
you."  
"Don't give us that again --" the blue one started.  
"It's true!" Julianna said, her beautiful voice silencing the gargoyle.  
"Ebon has amnesia. He doesn't remember anything."  
They stared, first at her and then at him. He nodded.  
"And we're supposed to believe that?" the green one said  
skeptically.  
"Lex, it could be true," the grey one said. "You said he was in a  
fight ..."  
"He was injured when we found him," Julianna explained. "I don't  
know what you know about him, and I don't really want to, but you have to  
believe that whatever he was before, he's a good person now. When he saw  
you on the roof during the concert, he just wanted to talk to you because  
he'd never seen others like himself."  
Lex frowned thoughtfully. "I ... I guess it could be true."  
"It's a trick!" the blue one said.  
"Broadway, come on!" The rose one rolled her eyes. "Why would  
they lie?"  
"You don't know him. He lies as well as Xanatos!"  
"But Xanatos is your friend now," the grey one pointed out.  
"Well ... that's different."  
"Wait, wait." Lex held up his hands. "I think they're telling the  
truth. And we've got enemies enough without opening old wounds. Let's just  
let it go."  
"That's crazy," Broadway declared.  
"What's crazy," the rose one said, "is that here we are, backstage  
with Scarlet Angel, and nobody's asking for autographs!"  
* *   
  
_Manhattan, 3:45 A.M.  
_   
"Do you think it'll be all right?" Aiden asked Lex as they glided  
toward the Statue of Liberty.  
Lex shrugged, causing him to dip in the air. "I'm going to tell  
Goliath everything. If Thailog -- I mean, Ebon -- does have amnesia, there's  
still some things he'd got to know. About Demona, at least. Because sooner  
or later, she's going to find out about him and come after him."  
"But that was a whole year ago."  
"You don't know Demona. She can hold a grudge for a thousand  
years. Ask MacBeth. One year is nothing to her."  
"He seems okay," Aiden ventured.  
"Yeah," Lex said. "He kind of does. It's weird. I mean, he's kept the  
business sense Xanatos programmed into him, but other than that ... he's a  
lot more like Goliath than he ever used to be. Like he's got Goliath's  
instincts or something."  
Lady Liberty rose before them, green and peaceful in the night, her  
torch held high. Aiden had visited the island with her parents, but there was  
a big difference between coming over on the ferry and approaching by air.  
From here, for instance, she could see a blackened spot on the great book.  
She pointed it out to Lex.  
"Hey, Broadway!" Lex called. "Didn't you crash a Steel Clan robot  
down there?"  
"Think so. I wrecked so many of those, I lost track."  
The four of them spiraled down and landed on the statue's crown.  
From here, they had a spectacular view of the city.  
"This has to be the most interesting date I've ever been on." Birdie  
grinned at Aiden. "And to think, when I first saw you, I said to myself, 'now,  
this one is going to be boresville!' Proved me wrong, Ferguson!"  
"My life _was_ boresville," Aiden said. "Before I met Lex." She  
rested her head on his shoulder.  
"Tired?" he asked.  
"Exhausted. When I woke up this morning, I thought I'd just spend  
the evening studying and go to bed right after watching E.R."  
"And you turn back at sunrise?"  
She nodded. "This has been really neat, though."  
"Yeah." He stroked the crest rising from her head. "Really neat. I  
wish you could stay like this."  
"I thought about it." She glanced at him shyly. "But Miss St. John  
would have a conniption. Not to mention my parents. And I wouldn't be able  
to use the wand anymore."  
"You couldn't give that up. So we just have to enjoy it while we  
can." He leaned over and kissed her firmly.  
"Looks like they could use a little privacy," Birdie said to  
Broadway. "Anyplace around here we could get something to eat?"  
"I know an ice cream place that's open all night. I stopped a  
robbery there once, and the owner gives me half-price."  
"Oh, my hero!" Birdie cried rapturously. "Split a hot fudge  
sundae?"  
"With extra whipped cream!"  
"Great!" She dove from Lady Liberty. "Meet you back at the car,  
Ferguson!"  
Lex chuckled as he watched them go. "They sure seemed to hit it  
off."  
"Well, Birdie's very outgoing."  
"I noticed. Bet you anything that Broadway asks me to keep parts  
of what happened tonight a secret. From Angela, especially. He was getting  
more action than me, and on the first date!"  
"Really?"  
"That's what it looked like, anyway."  
Aiden sighed. "I'm sorry, Lex. I've just never been ... you know,  
free-spirited."  
"You've got nothing to apologize for. You're terrific, Aiden. I mean  
it." He kissed her again.  
"I don't want you to be disappointed," she said when the warm kiss  
ended, "but I don't know if I'm ready for ... that."  
"That what? Oh! That!" He laughed. "Hey, just because I've been  
waiting for ten centuries is no reason for you to feel obligated!"  
"I'm serious!"  
"Okay, Aiden. Okay. Serious." He clasped her hands and looked  
into her eyes. "Seriously, I'm in love with you."  
She gasped, thrilled and almost tearful in her happiness.  
"And yeah, I want to do something about it," he continued. "You're  
beautiful, as a human or as a gargoyle. I'd have to be blind or stupid not to  
notice. But I'm in no hurry. I can wait. Well, unless you pet my back again,  
in which case I'll turn into a wild animal and be all over you."  
Aiden giggled. "Guess I know what to do when I am ready, then."  
"Deal! So, now do we get to make out some more?"  
"There's something I have to tell you first."  
"What?"  
"Lex, I love you too."  
* *   
  
_Manhattan, 7:05 A.M._  
  
  
Dominique Destine fixed herself a quick but large breakfast of  
blueberry muffins, coffee, and orange juice. She switched on the television  
for company as she dressed for work.  
Strange, how quickly she'd gotten used to having Vito around the  
house and how long it was taking to get over his absence. One would think  
that, since she had killed him herself months ago, she would have  
experienced some closure in the matter, but she kept expecting him to  
wander into the kitchen and greet her with that polite little smile of his.  
He was dead and gone, though. And soon she would forget all  
about him. In the meantime, she had the inane chatter of the morning news  
to keep her mind occupied.  
She listened with half an ear while planning her strategy for her  
first meeting of the day. A Mr. Nicholas Diamant. Much as it galled her, she  
had a better chance of destroying the Quarrymen if she was able to infiltrate  
their organization.  
" -- revealed to be a gargoyle!"  
Dominique knocked her coffee cup to the floor as she spun to face  
the television, suddenly sure that she'd been exposed and ruined.  
The blow-dried newscaster's unnaturally perfect smile gave way to  
a film clip of a crowded concert, and a dark form gliding down to the stage.  
She knew that form, knew it intimately. When the spotlight  
gleamed over skin like obsidian and hair like snow, she upended her dining  
room table.  
"Thailog!"  
* *  
The End. 


End file.
